Fine-grained plant pathology classification is an important task for precision agriculture, but at the same time, it is challenging due to the subtle difference in plant categories. Variances in the lighting conditions, position, and stages of disease symptoms usually lead to degradation of classification accuracy. Knowledge distillation is a popular method to improve the model performance to deal with the indistinguishable image classification problem. It aims to have a well-optimised small student network guided by a large teacher network. Existing knowledge distillation methods mainly consider training a teacher network that needs a high storage space and considerable computing resources. Self-knowledge distillation methods have been proposed to distil knowledge from the same network. Although self-knowledge distillation saves time and space compared with knowledge distillation, it only learns label knowledge. In this paper, we propose a novel self-distillation method to recognize the fine-grained plant category, which considers holistic knowledge based on the Squeeze and Excitation Network. We label this new method as holistic self-distillation because it captures knowledge through spatial features and labels. The performance validation of the proposed approach is performed on two public fine-grained plant datasets: Plant Pathology 2021 and Plant Pathology 2020 with the accuracy of 98.22% and 90.72% respectively. We also present experiments on the state-of-the-art algorithm (ResNet-50). The classification results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with respect to accuracy.

Computer vision and deep learning have made substantial progress in the areas of agriculture and smart farming, particularly for enhancing crop production using image segmentation techniques for crop yield prediction. Further improvements to crop yield prediction results can be achieved by developing accurate and efficient methods. In response to such demands, this paper proposes a novel convolutional neural network architecture, called densely connected SegNet (D-SegNet) and demonstrates its advantages on plant segmentation using a new morning glory plant dataset, and also on a complimentary publicly available dataset to promote research in this direction. The D-SegNet is evaluated using 10-fold cross validation. It achieves performance better than the state-of-the-art SegNet algorithm. The evaluated precision, recall and F1-score values are 98.20%, 90.64% and 94.26%, respectively, for the morning glory plant dataset. The intersection over union (IoU) value in the image segmentation tasks is 90.56%. A series of experiments on the morning glory plant dataset as well as on the publicly available dataset were conducted. The results show that the proposed method achieves accurate segmentation results and can be useful for assessing the plant weight during harvesting. In summary, this new plant segmentation network, D-SegNet, could form an important component of future cloud-based machine learning systems to predict crop yield from noisy smartphone images taken in the field.

Substantial experimental evidence suggests the cerebellum is involved in calibrating sensorimotor maps. Consistent with this involvement is the well-known, but little understood, massive cerebellar projection to maps in the superior colliculus. Map calibration would be a significant new role for the cerebellum given the ubiquity of map representations in the brain, but how it could perform such a task is unclear. Here we investigated a dynamic method for map calibration, based on electrophysiological recordings from the superior colliculus, that used a standard adaptive-filter cerebellar model. The method proved effective for complex distortions of both unimodal and bimodal maps, and also for predictive map-based tracking of moving targets. These results provide the first computational evidence for a novel role for the cerebellum in dynamic sensorimotor map calibration, of potential importance for coordinate alignment during ongoing motor control, and for map calibration in future biomimetic systems. This computational evidence also provides testable experimental predictions concerning the role of the connections between cerebellum and superior colliculus in previously observed dynamic coordinate transformations.

Water is a highly valuable resource so asset management of associated infrastructure is of critical importance. Water distribution pipe networks are usually buried, and so are difficult to access. Robots are therefore appealing for performing inspection and detecting damage to target repairs. However, robot mapping and localisation of buried water pipes has not been widely investigated to date, and is challenging because pipes tend to be relatively featureless. In this paper we propose a mapping and localisation algorithm for metal water pipes with two key novelties: the development of a new type of map based on hydrophone induced vibration signals of metal pipes, and a mapping algorithm based on spatial warping and averaging of dead reckoning signals used to calibrate the map (using dynamic time warping). Localisation is performed using both terrain-based extended Kalman filtering and also particle filtering. We successfully demonstrate and evaluate the approach on a combination of experimental and simulation data, showing improved localisation compared to dead reckoning.

We present an adaptive filter model of cerebellar function applied to the calibration of a tactile sensory map to improve the accuracy of directed movements of a robotic manipulator. This is demonstrated using a platform called Bellabot that incorporates an array of biomimetic tactile whiskers, actuated using electro-active polymer artificial muscles, a camera to provide visual error feedback, and a standard industrial robotic manipulator. The algorithm learns to accommodate imperfections in the sensory map that may be as a result of poor manufacturing tolerances or damage to the sensory array. Such an ability is an important pre-requisite for robust tactile robotic systems operating in the real-world for extended periods of time. In this work the sensory maps have been purposely distorted in order to evaluate the performance of the algorithm.

We present a framework for the identification of spatiotemporal linear dynamical systems. We use a state-space model representation that has the following attributes: 1) the number of spatial observation locations are decoupled from the model order; 2) the model allows for spatial heterogeneity; 3) the model representation is continuous over space; and 4) the model parameters can be identified in a simple and sparse estimation procedure. The model identification procedure we propose has four steps: 1) decomposition of the continuous spatial field using a finite set of basis functions where spatial frequency analysis is used to determine basis function width and spacing, such that the main spatial frequency contents of the underlying field can be captured; 2) initialization of states in closed form; 3) initialization of state-transition and input matrix model parameters using sparse regression-the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method; and 4) joint state and parameter estimation using an iterative Kalman-filter/sparse-regression algorithm. To investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm we use data generated by the Kuramoto model of spatiotemporal cortical dynamics. The identification algorithm performs successfully, predicting the spatiotemporal field with high accuracy, whilst the sparse regression leads to a compact model.

Cerebellar function is increasingly discussed in terms of engineering schemes for motor control and signal processing that involve internal models. To address the relation between the cerebellum and internal models, we adopt the chip metaphor that has been used to represent the combination of a homogeneous cerebellar cortical microcircuit with individual microzones having unique external connections. This metaphor indicates that identifying the function of a particular cerebellar chip requires knowledge of both the general microcircuit algorithm and the chip's individual connections. Here we use a popular candidate algorithm as embodied in the adaptive filter, which learns to decorrelate its inputs from a reference ('teaching', 'error') signal. This algorithm is computationally powerful enough to be used in a very wide variety of engineering applications. However, the crucial issue is whether the external connectivity required by such applications can be implemented biologically. We argue that some applications appear to be in principle biologically implausible: these include the Smith predictor and Kalman filter (for state estimation), and the feedback-error-learning scheme for adaptive inverse control. However, even for plausible schemes, such as forward models for noise cancellation and novelty-detection, and the recurrent architecture for adaptive inverse control, there is unlikely to be a simple mapping between microzone function and internal model structure. This initial analysis suggests that cerebellar involvement in particular behaviours is therefore unlikely to have a neat classification into categories such as 'forward model'. It is more likely that cerebellar microzones learn a task-specific adaptive-filter operation which combines a number of signal-processing roles.

Sensory signals are often caused by one's own active movements. This raises a problem of discriminating between self-generated sensory signals and signals generated by the external world. Such discrimination is of general importance for robotic systems, where operational robustness is dependent on the correct interpretation of sensory signals. Here, we investigate this problem in the context of a whiskered robot. The whisker sensory signal comprises two components: one due to contact with an object (externally generated) and another due to active movement of the whisker (self-generated). We propose a solution to this discrimination problem based on adaptive noise cancelation, where the robot learns to predict the sensory consequences of its own movements using an adaptive filter. The filter inputs (copy of motor commands) are transformed by Laguerre functions instead of the often-used tapped-delay line, which reduces model order and, therefore, computational complexity. Results from a contact-detection task demonstrate that false positives are significantly reduced using the proposed scheme.

In this paper, a model of cerebellar function is implemented and evaluated in the control of a robot eye actuated by pneumatic artificial muscles. The investigated control problem is stabilization of the visual image in response to disturbances. This is analogous to the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) in humans. The cerebellar model is structurally based on the adaptive filter, and the learning rule is computationally analogous to least-mean squares, where parameter adaptation at the parallel fiber/Purkinje cell synapse is driven by the correlation of the sensory error signal (carried by the climbing fiber) and the motor command signal. Convergence of the algorithm is first analyzed in simulation on a model of the robot and then tested online in both one and two degrees of freedom. The results show that this model of neural function successfully works on a real-world problem, providing empirical evidence for validating: 1) the generic cerebellar learning algorithm; 2) the function of the cerebellum in the VOR; and 3) the signal transmission between functional neural components of the VOR.